1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to paint booths and, more specifically, to a portable advisory system for balancing airflows in a paint booth.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to provide paint booths for paint applications to motor vehicles. However, in operating the paint booths, airflow balancing is one of the main issues. Properly controlled airflow has a significant impact on paint quality and paint usage through eliminating over-spray between zones in the paint booth and improving paint transfer efficiency.
One method for balancing the airflows in a paint booth that is not equipped with a system for automatic control is based on a trial-and-error approach or procedure. Cross and down flows in each zone of the paint booth are measured and appropriate adjustments of air supplies such as fans, variable fan dampers (VFDs) and damper settings are made in order to obtain some desired distribution of the airflows in the paint booth. Such an approach requires experience and good understanding about paint booth dynamics and may be tedious and time consuming.
As a result, it is desirable to provide an advisory system to measure and balance airflows in a paint booth. It is also desirable to provide a low cost system to measure and balance airflows in a paint booth that does not require extra on-line control or sensing. It is further desirable to provide a portable system to measure and balance airflows in a paint booth that is easily transported and used by a single person.
Accordingly, the present invention is a portable advisory system for balancing airflows in a paint booth. The portable advisory system includes a portable airflow sensor to measure airflows in the paint booth, and a portable computer connected to the airflow sensor for collecting data from the airflow sensor and guiding an operator through a process of adjusting multiple fan speeds and duct dampers to achieve desired airflows.
One advantage of the present invention is that a portable advisory system for balancing airflows in a paint booth is provided. Another advantage of the present invention is that the portable advisory system uses a handheld acoustic anemometer or airflow sensor to measure airflows in a paint booth that are output to a laptop/palmtop computer that collects data and guides the operator through the process of adjusting multiple fan speeds and duct dampers to achieve the desired airflows in the paint booth in a relatively short time interval without adding costly automation equipment. Yet another advantage of the present invention is that the portable advisory system is a low cost tool for balancing airflows in a paint booth that does not require extra on-line control or sensing equipment. Still another advantage of the present invention is that the portable advisory system eliminates the time consuming, trial and error procedure currently used for balancing airflows in paint booths. A further advantage of the present invention is that the portable advisory system is easily transported and used by a single person. Yet a further advantage of the present is invention is that the portable advisory system has automatic data storage and transmittal from an airflow sensor to a computer. Still a further advantage of the present invention is that the portable advisory system automatically updates a simplified model of the airflows in a paint booth and uses this model to iteratively calculate the optimum adjustments to the fan speed and/or duct damper settings by minimizing the mean squared error between current and target airflows.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated, as the same becomes better understood, after reading the subsequent description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.